New Delhi:
A Ugandan woman says she has, in a statement recorded by a magistrate, identified Delhi Law Minister
Somnath Bharti as the man who led a late night raid at her house last week.
"We were attacked on Wednesday night (January 15) by Indians who were led by Somnath Bharti. They said we are blacks and so we should leave their country. We were harassed, we were beaten, they had long sticks (sic). They said we should leave their country or they will kill us one by one. We don't know if being black is a crime," she told reporters after recording her statement.
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The woman claimed Mr Bharti's muffler helped her identify him when he appeared on TV the next day.
In a complaint filed in a Saket court on Saturday, the woman had alleged that a group of people from a political party forcibly entered her house in south Delhi and molested her. While she didn't name any individual or a political party, she told the court that she could identify the men. (
AAP's 'midnight raid': FIR lodged against unknown people)
On Sunday, the Delhi Police had registered a First Information Report or FIR against unknown people.
The Delhi Commission for Women has demanded that the minister be removed. "The woman's allegation is very serious. The law minister has no right now to remain in office now," the commission's chairperson Barkha Singh said.
Mr Bharti has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has strongly supported him.
The Law Minister had on January 15 night attempted a raid on what he alleged was a drug and prostitution racket in Khirki Extension, a south Delhi locality in his constituency. The minister, aided by some residents and supporters, allegedly accosted four women from Uganda and at least two were allegedly forced to go to hospital and undergo drug tests.
Mr Bharti's allegation that policemen in charge of the area refused to cooperate led to a massive showdown between the Delhi Police and the Arvind Kejriwal government, with the latter staging a two-day protest in the heart of the capital to demand the suspension of the cop and several others.
Yesterday, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi announced that the policeman had been "sent on leave" in a compromise formula that Chief Minister Mr Kejriwal accepted and called off his protest.